The Steep Approach To Garbadale - Tapa blanda

Dark family secrets and a long-lost love affair lie at the heart of Iain Banks's fabulous new novel.
The Wopuld family built its fortune on a board game called Empire! - now a hugely successful computer game. So successful, the American Spraint Corp wants to buy the firm out. Young renegade Alban, who has been evading the family clutches for years, is run to ground and persuded to attend the forthcoming family gathering - part birthday party, part Extraordinary General Meeting - convened by Win, Wopuld matriarch and most powerful member of the board, at Garbadale, the family's highland castle.
Being drawn back into the bosom of the clan brings a disconcerting confrontation with Alban's past. What drove his mother to take her own life? And is he ready to see Sophie, his beautiful cousin and teenage love? Grandmother Win's revelations wll radically alter Alban's perspective for ever.

'There are so many larger-than-life characters in this wonderful novel . . . It is the story of one young man's getting of wisdom, an oblique but observant history of Britain from the 1980s to the present day, and a great game of consequences' Sunday Telegraph

After years of exile, Alban Wopuld has been summoned back to his family's highland estate, Garbadale. The Wopuld clan are closing ranks. They have built their fortune on the boardgame Empire! - which has become a hugely successful computer game - and now the Americans want to buy them out.

As the family gathers for their Extraordinary General Meeting, old grudges, forbidden passions and dark secrets emerge. What drove Alban's mother to take her own life? And is he over Sophie, his bewitching cousin and teenage love?

'His most accomplished book since The Crow Road. From the moment it begins there is an immediate sense of being in safe hands . . . A first-rate novel' Matt Thorne, Literary Review